denver, i'm jim lehrer, thank you, and good night. ke round one between president obama -- >> govern romney's proposal calls for a $5 trillion tax cut. >> andthe man after his ob >> i'm not looking for a $5 trillion tax cut. what i said is i won't put in place a tax cut that adds to the deficit. >> their first debate, contentio contentious. >> for 18 months he's been running on this tax plan. and now, five weeks before the election, he's saying that his big bold idea is never mind. >> virtually everything he said about my tax plan sin accurate.

look, i have five boys. i'm use the to people saying something that is notays ultimately hoping i'll believe it. >> the question this morning, did either candidate do enough to make believers out of america's undecided voters? it is the day after. good morning and welcome to "early start," everybody. it's 5:00 a.m. in the east. first, round one. it is now in the books. mitt romney has something to celebrate. in a cnn poll, 67% said romney won the first presidential debate. 25% think president obama was the victor. >> there were no real knockout punches thrown last night, more like a series of glancing blows with romney the aggressor on taxes, jobs, health care. putting the president really on the defensive. we're lucky to be joined by dana bash. >> i think you're right. it was a debate between a rusty president obama and a well rehearsed mitt romney.

>> reporter: right out of the gate, it was clear, mitt romney came to play. >> the president has a view very similar to the view he had when he ran four years ago that a bigger government, spending more, taxing more, regulating more, if you will, trickle down government would work. >> reporter: president obama sounded a familiar alarm, warning of romney's been there, done that economics. >> the approach that governor romney is talking about is the same sales pitch made in 2001 and 2003. and we ended up with the slowest job growth in 50 years. >> reporter: but whether it was health care, jobs, or medicare, it was romney who stood out for his aggressive style. >> i just don't know how the president could have come into office facing 23 million people out of work, rising unemployment, an economic crisis at the kitchen table and spend his energy and passion for two

years fighting for obama care. >> reporter: the president made his points in a slower, laid back manner, often appearing disengaged. it's not that he didn't try to rip apart romney's economic plan. >> that kind of top down economics where folks at the top are doing well so the average person making $3 million is getting a $250,000 tax break while middle class families are burdened further -- >> reporter: romney was determined to go toe to toe. >> virtually everything he said about my tax plan sin accurate. if the tax plan he described were a tax plan i was asked to support, i'd say absolutely not. >> reporter: the president did get digs in. >> for 18 months he's been running on this tax plan. and now, five weeks before the election, he's saying that his big bold idea is never mind. >> reporter: but he also showed flashes of the kind of testiness sources in both camps feared from the candidates, except obama's was directed at the moderator, not romney. >> the last point i'd make

before -- >> your two minutes is up. >> i think i had five seconds before you interrupted me, was -- >> reporter: romney did have his own awkward moderator moment. >> i'm sorry, jim, i'm going to stop the subsidy to pbs, i like big bird, like you, too. >> reporter: one of the surprising parts of the president's performance is what he didn't say, no mention of romney's 47% remark, no talk of bain capital, nothing about romney's own taxes. he did play the romney is a hypocrite card when it comes to health care. >> the irony is we've seen this model work really well in massachusetts. because governor romney did a good thing working with democrats in the state to set up what is essentially the identical model and as a consequence, people are covered. there it hasn't destroyed jobs. >> reporter: romney who ran from his massachusetts health care plan during the gop primaries

now used it to attack to the middle to the general election. >> i like the way we did it in massachusetts. i like the fact that in my state we had republicans and democrats come together and work together. what you did, instead, was to push through a plan would the a single republican vote. >> reporter: and romney's countless hours of rehearsals clearly produced lines like this. >> mr. president, your title as a president to your own airplane and house but not to your own facts. >> you know, you can say a lot of things about this debate, but one thing you have to say is it was substantive. for months we heard president obama when he was a young person eating dog in indonesia, we heard about mitt romney putting the dog on his car this is about real policy differences. the talking points of the campaign is there is a real contrast. there is a real difference between them, especially on the economy. >> dana, we started with the poll, 67% say romney won the first presidential debate. so this morning everybody's

asking what happened to president obama? was it, in fact, that romney just prepared better? >> if you just look at the schedules, romney prepared better. romney spent a lot of time. it was about a month ago during the democratic convention he first went to debate boot camp. he went to vermont and really was there for three days doing mock debates. he prepared as much as he could on planes. they had a series of mock debates. he spent a lot of time doing it. he got a lot of flack for it, for not being out on the campaign trail enough in battleground states. >> maybe it will pay off. >> there were a lot of numbers tossed around. there were a lot of facts on both sides. i want to run through a few of the numbers that came up over the course of the night. they are important. cnn did a lot of fact checking. i want to start with tax cuts. you knew this was going to be a big issue. president obama went on the attack saying mitt romney is essentially pitching a huge tax cut for the rich.

>> governor romney's central economic plan calls for a $5 trillion tax cut on top of the extension of the bush tax cuts, that's another trillion and $2 trillion in additional military spending that the military hasn't asked for. >> mitt romney does propose across the board 20% tax cuts in the nonpartisan tax center says under that plan, taxes on the wealthiest americans would be reduced by $5 trillion. initially. but romney says he would offset the cuts with reductions and deductions and closing loopholes that will reduce the tax cut for the wealthy. so our verdict here is that president's saying he would cut the taxes by $5 trillion on wealthy is false because any deduction you take out will make it smaller. there is more to this story. on the deficit, mitt romney claims with the tax cuts he'll not add to the deficit. >> my number one principle is there will be no tax cut adds to

the deficit. i won't put in place a tax cut that adds to the deficit. that's part one. so no economist can say his tax plan adds $5 trillion if i say i won't add to the deficit with my tax plan. my plan is not to put in aplacea tax cut that will add to the deficit. >> he hasn't told us what the deductions would be that he would reduce, what loopholes he would close. he just hasn't said how much or how many. there are no details. so the verdict here sin completcompletis incomplete. the other issue, medicare. mitt romney maiming the claim that president obama is looking to make cuts that affect people in the program today. >> what i support is no change for current retirees and near retirees to medicare and the president supports taking $716 billion out of that program. >> now, this is what is checked and checked again. president obama has proposed not

cuts to medicare. medicare will still grow. it will just grow more slowly. a reduction of growth of $716 billion plus. that money is coming from insurers and care providers, not beneficiaries. the language here is flatly false. want to talk one more time about health care. president obama said there is in good news about the cost of health care premiums. >> over the last two years, health care premiums have gone up, it's true, but they've gone up slower than any time in the last 50 years. so we're already beginning to see progress. >> now let's look at the facts here, premiums did increase 4% last year. there is growth there. the kaiser family foundation says that growth is at historic low. health care spending did grow slower than it has any time the last 50 years. still slow though. the verdict here for the president is mostly true. so you heard a lot of facts there, guys. a lot of ground to cover. there are other things we didn't

get here. definitely a lot to talk about. >> on cnn.com there are five things we learned from the debate and a lot of fact checking that goes on online. it is a lot, right? >> it is a lot. >> thank you very much. nine minutes past the hour. later on this hour of "early start," more debate analysis from a former adviser to president clinton and republican strategist anna navarro. in case you miss any of last night's debate, you can see it on cnn at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. the syrian civil war spilling over the border this morning. turkey and syria trading artillery fire. we're going to go live to the middle east for more on this border battle coming up. and ts in pieces all over the district. the writer's desktop and the coordinator's phone are working on a joke with local color. the secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategist's tablet. and while i make my way into the venue,

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welcome back to "early start." tensions are rising this morning between syria and turkey. turkish troops are firing back

after five civilians in a turkish border town were killed yesterday by syrian artillery fire including three children there. turkey is also asking the u.n. to intervene now even though the syrians are apologizing. nick peyton walsh joins us live from beirut. what is the latest on the conflict between the two countries? it's very troubling. >> reporter: shelling continued overnight according to a senior turkish official but has now ended. there appear to be targeting a military facility in a town. what is key is that this shelling persisted overnight. there had been a belief that the turkish were going to retaliate once to show strength and get the rhetorical backing from its nato allies. but they have continued shelling. this is not all sophisticated military. they're trying to destroy. and we've had reports from syrian opposition activist that's are syrian army

casualties as a result of the turkish strikes. >> and a few analysts are suspecting that syria's attack on turkey may have been orchestrated by either the assad regime or the rebels in an attempt to pull turkey into the syrian conflict. do you have any evidence of that? >> reporter: at this point, no. i mean i understand both points of view and the rational towards making them. at this point it is hard to understand why the president would want to further complicate his life by drawing in his key neighborhood backer of the syrian rebel movement and also has the backing of nato. that is hard to understand. yes, there's a lot of logic as to why the rebels would like to see turkey come more in their side militarily and, of course, turkish artillery is doing their job for them now, destroying some syrian military regime targets there. but those theories require evidence. there is none of that at the moment. perhaps i'm suggested a more likely suggestion and overreach on the stake by the syrian military causing a shell to land

inside turkey. an egregious mistake and one they repeated many times. but that's potentially more likely than a conspiracy or broader effort to trag turkey into this 18th, 19th month war. >> syria has apologized. nick, nato says they will continue to stand by turkey and urges the syrian regime to put an end to flagrant violations of international law. there is a charter for collective action when one member is attacked. what are the chances that nato will get involved here? >> reporter: very slim right now. when you say nato besides the uk and france who have limited capacity to help here, we're talking about america. until the next election is passed and until the next administration wants to get involved in this, we're not going to see any major nato intervention. the backing is firm. that will help bolster turkey's case and push the military back

to prevent this thing from happening ever again. but we're really talking about a potential of the future over know fly zone, maybe in months time if nato decides to step forward and seize turkey once again attacked by the syrians. but for now this is very much a rhetorical response and we're going to be talking weeks and months of continued aggression by the syrians as the turkish will see it, until you see any game change like that. >> nick, thank you very much. update on a troubling medical story. the meningitis outbreak in tennessee has spread to five states killing four people. dozens of people now infected with the rare noncontagious version. all of them received steroid injections to their spines. we have a lot of questions about this story. we'll be talking to our medical correspondent. and still no word on when jesse jackson jr. might return to capitol hill. his wife sandy says there are no guarantees voters will even here from the congressman before the lection although she says his

name will remain on the ballot. he is suffering from bipolar disorder. two of country's low cost carriers are merging. they're joining forces to become t mobile. they'll have more than 42 million subscribers and annual sales of $25 billion. boeing and general electric finalizing a $6 billion deal for 85 737 planes. the ge purchase order includes 35 jets and ten next generation 737-800s. ate lo it allows for 15 more planes. >> miguel cabrera is the first slugger to win the triple crown in 30 years. cabrera finished the season with a .330 average along with 44 home runs and 139 rbis. the last player to win the

triple crown was a player from the boston red sox in 1967. >> 1967. >> yes. well before i was born. >> yeah, right. a wild finish to baseball's regular season. the new york yankees pounding the boston red sox 14-2 last night to clinch the american league east title for the 13th time in 17 years. >> boo. >> no boo. good for them. the oakland a's winning the american league west with a victory over the texas rangers. all right. your ten play-off teams, yankees, tigers, as, orioles and rangers in the american league. washington, cincinnati, san francisco, atlanta and st. louis in the national league. >> the washington nationals are the official baseball team of "early start." we're all pulling for them. >> nobody informed me of that. >> the main topic in last night's debate, jobs and the economy. where do we stand right now and where are we headed? we'll have the answers coming up. [ female announcer ] born from the naturally sweet monk fruit,

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markets will open higher this morning. >> the economy was a big part of last night's debate. we want this overview. >> you were fact checking a lot of things earlier. with jobs especially. you don't need to fact check the numbers, 12.5 million people are unemployed in this country. the unemployment rate is at

8.1%. sa in september we gained 10,000 jobs. it's okay. it's not great. reality is we have a long way to go. we're only adding enough jobs to keep up with population growth. it's not enough to bring down the unemployment rate. it's not improving fast enough. >> all right. you've got some other retail sales numbers. >> the forecast are coming out for holiday shopping figures. >> already? >> already, yes. it's never too early. it's important because these could really help push the economy, give it that momentum. at this point retail sales over the holiday shopping season, november and december expected to go up 4 had the.1%. that is slower growth compared to the last two years. it's really not that great. consumers are hesitant to go out there because of all the uncertainty in the economy and washington. who is going to be in the white house next year? what's going to happen with the tax bills? this is really a big deal that's

going to hold a lot of people back from spending during the holidays. this could be a big concern. you know, the weak jobs market adding to this concern. the unemployment rate. if you don't have a job, you're not going to go out and spend a lot of money. something else to consider, manufacturing that, is what really got us out of the recession. we can't rely on this to keep the momentum going this time around. so we're sort of leaning on consumer spending. but we may not see it this holiday shopping season. >> one more reason for our politicians in congress to fix the fiscal cliff. they're spoiling christmas. >> yes, they could be. >> good point. >> that's a very good point. 25 minutes past the hour. the morning after the first presidential debate everyone is asking who won? do you have an answer? we have answers for you. brand new cnn poll taken right after it was over and more highlights and analysis headed your way. if you're leaving the house right now, don't worry. you can watch us any time on your desktop or mobile phone. just go to cnn.com/tv.

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as a president, you're entitled to your own airplane and own house but not your own facts. >> for mitt romney, that may be one of the well rehearsed digs. the president counter punched with some sarcasm. >> at some point i think the american people have to ask themselves is the reason that governor romney is keeping all these plans to replace secret because they're too good? >> so this morning a brand new cnn poll tells us who came out

on top. we're going to share that with you. welcome back to "early start." nice to have you with us this morning. >> it's 29 minutes after the hour. it is the morning after debate night in america. it may have been short on fireworks but definitely long on detail. president obama and mitt romney meeting for their very first debate in denver. if you look at cnn's polling, viewers thought the winner was crystal clear. >> yeah, 67% of debate watchers surveyed thought romney ran away with it. >> we're going to bring in a democratic strategist, former employee in the clinton administration. great to have you here. dana bash is back us with. and anna navarro, a republican strategist that worked with john mccain and now a cnn contributor. we're glad you're all with us this morning. richard, you know, we have you here this morning on a day -- >> so good to be here this morning. >> a challenging day for the democrats. you saw the debate.

you saw what our polls are saying this morning. >> there was a debate last night? >> yeah. >> did the president lose this? >> you know, i think luckily for me this morning history tells us that we don't know really who won or lost in terms of where it moved -- if it moved any votes until many days later. these things have to set in. but clearly, as you have been reporting already this morning and as the pundits were saying last night, i think that romney had from a theatrical perspective a great night. >> we have to wait to see what history says about who won or lost. the polls are crystal clear. 60% think romney won. on the issues, romney way ahead of the president also. who would better handle the deficit. 16-point advantage. economy, a 12-point advantage. taxes, 9-point advantage. across the board. >> i think those polls are snap polls of people who watch the debate. so i think that this -- i really do think that it will take a while to set in.

you know, we have to know who watched the debate and who didn't watch. you know, we have other debates to come. but, you know, listen, i'm not suggesting that the president had a good night last night. i think he seemed very disengaged. he seemed very slow to react. and romney was, you know, had a -- from a theatrical perspective, had a terrific evening. >> you tweeted out, which was your only tweet, no offense whatsoever. >> yeah. >> so you agree. >> i found the thing that was most surprising was that the president really seemed to have no offense. he seemed to kind of just sit there and no matter what governor romney said, and i think there was some substantial factual inaccuracies in his presentation which we're going it hear a lot about today, but the president just seemed to, you know, just sort of sit there and take it. >> so danao dana'nna's mike mus. i haven't heard her chime in.

you were on fire with your tweets. how did you feel? >> this is a very good morning. there's been a few days before we got good news as republicans to come in and spend. i feel great about it. i've seen this mitt romney before. i know this guy. this is the guy who showed up at the two florida primary debates when on the ropes, when newt gingrich had him on the ropes after south carolina. he was focused. he was assertive. he was prepared. he was knowledgeable. he was on his a game and looked even better because the guy on the other side, president obama, wasn't there. he mailed it in. i think he thought you could do this by absentee ballot. and i think you can also say that you can see some of the burdens of incumbency that weighed heavily on president obama's shoulders last night. number one, no primary. he was rusty. number two, a record to defend. it's not that good a record. these things really weighed on

barack obama. i would almost say to him call up hillary and have another grueling primary before the next debate. >> let me hear what anna tweeted, i feel for democratic spinners this morning. it's painful as blank to go in a spin room and know that your guy lost. been there. here's what a lot of people -- >> we're not pretending he won. >> you're not. >> i think it's clear on the mtsicmts atmospheres, on the debate that romney had a terrific night. >> no mention of the 47%. no mention of bain capital. didn't respond to a claim that he is cutting $716 billion from medicare. romney's taxes weren't mentioned. why, do you think? >> it's hard to know why. i think the president was not prepared to do battle. and, you know, either misjudged what the debate was going to be like or just was not prepared. >> richard, since you're not doing a strong job of defending the president today, there is

one thing that i think is worth mentioning. as bad as the reviews have been for president obama, there's not one or two awful sound bites that are being replayed. there's not something that can be, you know, that can be hung around and weigh him down forever and ever. what do you think? >> absolutely. you think about the moment, the most memorable moments. and even when democrats in particular did badly like al gore when he was signed, can you play that over and over again. what i keep thinking about is 2004 i was covering the bush white house's re-election campaign. and his first debate against john kerry, he did horribly, absolutely horribly. and he came back from it. and it was i think the same dynamic. he was rusty. he didn't really put as much effort into it as he should have. and, you know, some people are saying online that maybe there is a conspiracy theory. that maybe president obama is trying to reel them in him. you all know --

>> this was not a plandz strned strategy. >> you're giving mitt romney a chance to ignite the finance base, to ignite his voting base. and to come back. and that's not something obama can afford right now. >> what you said is so important. the interesting thing is when you watch the clips this morning that you've been playing all morning, it does not look as bad for the president as it actually was. i mean he was flat. he was slow. he was very tentative. he just really sat there like a boxer and kept taking punches and didn't punch back. it was enormously frustrating. but as a matter of sound bites, what's going to get played, what is the opinion that's going to form over time, we don't really know what that's going to be. >> that's the key question though, right? independents. will this really make a difference for the voters? >> well, we'll know when we know who is the one that -- who are the ones that were watching. i think it's not going to be something that takes a long time to figure out. look, i've been at many debates. when you really don't see a clear winner. and when you leave the night not

knowing who won the debate any more than you did when you were going into the debate. last night was not one of those nights. yes, there was no knockout. yes, there were no memorable lines. but there was 90 minutes of sustained, very good performance by mitt romney against a very bad performance by president obama. >> we're going to have to leave it there with a sad face. thank you all. we're going to talk about this again repeatedly over the next hour and a half on this show. >> all right. 37 minutes past the hour. while the debate was unfolding, americans were googling. here are the top debate related searches. this is between 8. 456789 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. number one, simpson-bowles, number two, dod frank. number three, who is winning the debate, and number four, big bird.

the furrey sesame street character was mentioned. >> got to be nice to big bird. important thing in politics. next um on the october debate schedule, the battle of the number twos, vice president biden and paul ryan face off october 11th in their one and only debate in danville, kentucky. october 16th, the president and mitt romney square off for a second time in hempstead, long island. that will be moderated by candy crowley. and the third and final encounter scheduled for october 22nd in boca raton, florida. the candidates wasting no time getting their shots in after the debate. the spin from joe biden and paul ryan coming up. if you are one of the millions of men

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joe biden says president obama did a solid job presenting the democrats' message. >> if you just finished watching the debate like i did, i'm sure you're as proud of president obama as i am. you know, i've been saying for a long time, this election presents the starkest choice in my memory. i think the president did a wonderful job in making just how clear that is. >> nice of the vice president being in a dark room in a disclosed location. >> paul ryan agreed with those who say mitt romney was a big winner. he said mitt won this debate by articulating his positive vision for a better america and the specific solutions needed to achieve. that is interesting. one of the major critiques is he had no specific. >> and one issue they never touched is immigration. 20% of the population in colorado where last night's debate was held is latinos. they're more optimistic about

the economy than nonlatino white voters. still, six in ten latinos say the economy is in poor shape. a separate poll found a majority of latinos think the economy is a more important issue than immigration. so no doubt the latino vote will be key. coming up this weekend, soledad o'brien follows two people in nevada who are trying to tip the scales in their party's favor. watch "latino in america: courting their vote." that is sunday at 8:00 p.m. >> interesting. 43 minutes after the hour. confusion about early voting in the tampa area. the election supervisor says a call from organizing for america, a democratic community organizing group, prompted hundreds of phone calls about early voting. the call was actually about filling out absentee ballots at election offices. early voting, which is different, doesn't start until the 27th in florida. issue number one in america, jobs. who has them and who can create them? cnn fact checking both candidates' claims about the job market. that's coming up for you.

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so 47 minutes after the hour, who won? well, according to a cnn poll, i was mitt romney in a walk. 67% to mitt romney and 25% to president obama. it was point and counter point on that issue of jobs during

last night which each candidate staking claims. so what's a debate watcher to actually believe? cnn's tom foreman has a debate fact check for you. >> reporter: you both know the issue of this entire campaign has been jobs. so many people out of work, looking for work, worried for their jobs. and both candidates took that subject on first. >> over the last 30 months we've seen five million jobs in the private sector created. the auto industry has come roaring back. and housing has begun to rise. >> they're suffering in this country. and we talk about evidence, look at the evidence of the last four years. it's absolutely extraordinary. we got 23 million people out of work. >> reporter: this is a fundamental claim. president obama said he created five million jobs, mitt romney says not so much. let's look at the evidence. this is what the country looked like in 2009, president obama's first full year in office.

every state that looks brown out here is a state where they were losing jobs at the time. some of them very badly. look at ohio over here. 10.6% unemployment. gradually over the next few years we saw jobs come on and education and in health care and in business services and retail. and now look where we are today. every state that is lighter in color is where there are either no longer losing jobs or in most cases gaining jobs. ohio, 7.2% unemployment now. that is better than the national average. the bureau of labor statistics says to make that happen we had to create a lot of jobs. how many? by their count, 4.4 million so far. but here's what's not mentioned much, 4.3 million were lost during the bad days. so the net gain is only about 125,000 jobs. that falls short of the president's claim he created five million jobs. it's just a little bit too much of a stretch.

we have to call that claim false. even though many democrats will say in a heartbeat, look, he inherited a bad economy from george bush. many voters agree with that, nonetheless, the numbers don't add up. what about mitt romney's claim about 23 million people unemployed though? we need context to consider. let me bring tools up her to talk about this some. median income in this country is $51,000. here's categories that we can look at. low wage jobs, mid wage, high wage. this is what most people in the country are making right now. if you look at this and you consider what happened during the recession, look, everyone lost jobs. but the low wage jobs did not lose as much as the mid wage and high wage. when the jobs came back or started coming back, look what happened. the low wage rose the most. so among the jobs we lost or gained basically, we lost better jobs than what we regained. you have to consider that if you want to come close to mitt romney's number of 23 million. he is counting everyone as

unemployed, everyone giving up looking for work, everyone who is underemployed in this fashion, everyone who is part time and would like to be full time in all actuality although that adds up to about 23 million, he is doing the same thing barack obama did. he is stretching the numbers to the point of breaking so that is false, too. let's look at the overall question of real unemployment. can barack obama be re-elected with the numbers he is facing? it is a tough, tough task, no question. look at all the presidents relekted since the 1950s and the unemployment rates since that time. dwight eisenhower, richard nixon, president reagan, bill clinton, 5.1. the second george bush 5.4 and obama with a whopping 8.1% unemployment. these are the august numbers before they were elected. it's very difficult for any president to carry a weight like that into a re-election campaign

when president obama was elected the first time, it will be historic. if he le if he is re-elected, there will be no president since franklin roosevelt re-elected with those numbers. >> an amazing look and visual display of the -- >> that is a great way to learn, isn't it? >> absolutely. we want to fact check the weather now. we go to rob who has winter storm warnings already. >> i feel so insignificant. i don't have all the fancy displays. >> we have to get you some of those. >> we're going old school. roll the snow footage. north dakota, they got it. they had it in montana as well. and they're still selling houses there. come on! everybody wants to live there when it's snowing in october. oh, goodness. >> poor folks. >> winter storm warnings are posted now and still snowing across the eastern sections of that state. here are some of the snow

totals. this isn't causing catastrophic delays and damage out in this part of the world. but certainly notable for this time of year. almost a foot of snow in montana. fairfield, north carolina, three inches. billings, 2.3 inches. that's a record for the day. we have winds behind and ahead of this thing and across minnesota and iowa right now. gusting to 40 miles an hour. it's a very strong system that will continue to dump snow across this region. winter storm warnings up for parts of eastern north dakota and minnesota. could see six to ten inches of snow. 52 for the high temperature in denver and dropping. they were in the 80s yesterday. so there's your cold front. 80 degrees in chicago. and then the bottom falls out of this storm and the cold front moves to the east. still soupy along the eastern corridor of the u.s. with rain at times today. the cold air will be moving towards the northeast as we get towards the weekend. probably won't see this in new york city.

it certainly will be cooler on sunday and monday. >> okay. i was saying it is really hot today. soupy and warm and muggy. it's like summer. >> rain is coming. >> thank you, rob. 53 minutes past the hour. coming up, a health care fact check. the candidates agree the system is broken but who has the plan to fix it? our senior medical correspondent is on the case. she's also talking meningitis. and the newest nominees for rock 'n' roll hall of fame have been announced. find out if your favorite acts are on the list. those stories straight ahead. "early start after the break." [ woman ] it's 32 minutes to go time, and the candidate's speech is in pieces all over the district. the writer's desktop and the coordinator's phone are working on a joke with local color. the secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategist's tablet. and while i make my way into the venue, the candidate will be rehearsing off of his phone. [ candidate ] and thanks to every young face i see out there. [ woman ] his phone is one of his biggest supporters. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center...

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welcome back to "early start," everyone. we're taking a look at what is trending on the web. >> a certain sesame street character got a big facebook boost after this moment in the presidential debate. >> i'm going to stop the subsidy to pbs. i like pbs. i like big bird, i actually like you, too, but i'm not going to keep spending money to borrow money to pay for it. >> so listen to this mention of big bird spiked by almost 800,000% right after that. still president obama and mitt romney were mentioned 12 times more than the big yellow bird. romney had 11% more facebook mentions than obama. overall yesterday, the president was mentioned a half a million times more than romney. >> i called big bird feathery and you called him furry. he is, in fact, feathery. >> he feels furry. >> there was more talk about the debate last night in late night.

>> candidates decide who had would speak first by a coin toss which was confusing for mitt romney. they had to explain what a coin wasme was. he's never seen one of those. and tonight is the obama's 20th wedding anniversary. that seems very convenient. honey, i'd love to go to the ballet with you for our -- but i'm debating mitt romney that night. mitt, help me out, will you? >> now that first debate is over, you know, it's less than five weeks and both the candidates continue to raise money by selling little nick-nacks and stuff on the web sites. you have seen the web sites? take a look. >> it's about political chochki sechlt, the coffee cups, t-shirts, mugs. these are the items that president obama is selling on his website to raise capital for his campaign. mitt romney is also selling merchandise on his site that

includes caviar, cars, yachts, houses, and even an island. >> all right. we'll have some real political news on the debate. "early start" continues right now. >> that was funny. >> round one between one betwee obama -- >> governor romney's proposal that he's been promoting for 18 months calls for a $5 trillion tax cut. >> and the man who's after his job. >> i'm not looking for a $5 trillion tax cut. what i've said is i won't put in place a tax cut that adds to the deficit. >> their first debate, contentious. >> for 18 months, he's been running on this tax plan. and now five weeks before the election, he's saying that his big, bold idea is, never mind. >> virtually everything he just said about my tax plan is inaccurate. look, i've got five boys. i'm used to someone saying something that's not always true and just keep on repeating it and hoping ultimately i'll believe it. >> the question this morning, did either candidate do enough

to make believers out of america's undecided voters? good morning to you. welcome to "early start." i'm zoraida sambolin. >> and i'm john berman. it is 6:00 a.m. in the east. and of course, our big story, face to face, toe the toe, nose to nose, president obama and mitt romney squaring off last night in their first to have three presidential debates. tonight, mitt romney really has to feel pretty good about his performance. >> yes, according to a cnn/orc poll, 67% of debate watchers think romney won that debate. just 25% think the president was the winner. cnn's dana bash here to break it all down for us. so much to talk about. >> but it all comes down to rusty president obama and a very well-rehearsed mitt romney. right out of the gate, it was clear. mitt romney came to play. >> the president has a view very similar to the view he had when he ran four years ago. that a bigger government, spending more, taxing more,

regulating more, if you will, trickle-down government, would work. >> reporter: president obama sounded a familiar alarm, warning of romney's "been there, done that" economics. >> the approach that governor romney is talking about is the same sales pitch that was made in 2001 and 2003. and we ended up with the slowest job growth in 50 years. >> reporter: but whether it was health care, jobs, or medicare, it was romney who stood out for his aggressive style. >> i just don't know how the president could have come into office, facing 23 million people out of work, rising unemployment, an economic crisis at the kitchen table, and spend his energy and passion for two years civil righting for obama care. >> reporter: the president made his points in a slower, more laid back manner, often looking down, sometimes appearing disengaged. it's not that he didn't try to rip apart romney's economic plan. >> that kind of top-down economics, where folks at the top are doing well, so the

average person making 3 million bucks is getting a $250,000 tax break, while middle class families are burdened further. >> reporter: romney was determined to go toe to toe. >> well, but -- >> but virtually everything he just said about my tax plan is inaccurate. so if the tax plan he described were a tax plan i was asked to support, i'd say, absolutely not. >> reporter: the president did get digs in. >> for 18 months he's been running on this tax plan. and now five weeks before the election, he's saying that his big, bold idea is never mind. >> reporter: but he also showed is flashes of the kind of testiness sources in both camps feared from their candidates, except obama's was directed at the moderator, not romney. >> the last point i'd make, before -- >> two minutes is up, sir. >> i think i had five seconds, before you interrupted me -- >> reporter: romney did have his own awkward moderator moment. >> i'm sorry, jim, i'm going to

stop the subsidy to pbs. i like pbs, i love big bird, i actually like you too. >> reporter: one of the most surprising parts of the president's performance was what he did not say. no mention of romney's infamous 47% remark, no mention of bain capital, no mention of his own taxes. he did play the romney is a hypocrite card when it comes to health care. >> the irony is that we've seen this model work really well, in massachusetts. because governor romney did a good thing, working with democrats in the state to set up what is essentially the identical model and as a consequence, people are covered there. it hasn't destroyed jobs. >> reporter: romney, who ran from his massachusetts health care plan during the gop primaries, now used it to tack to the middle for the general election. >> i like the way we did it in massachusetts. i like the fact that in my state, we had republicans and democrats come together and work together. what you did, instead, was to

push through a plan without a single republican vote. >> reporter: and romney's countless hours of rehearsals clearly produced lines like this. >> mr. president, you're entitled as a president to your own airplane and your own house, but not to your own facts. >> i was just asking, is that the only line last night that everyone's replaying over and over again? >> about the only one. we started with the poll that said that 67% thought that romney won the debate. and now i want to show a poll on the issues. he took that as well. deficit, romney by 16%. economy, romney by 12%, taxes -- across the board, it was romney. it's actually pretty stunning, especially when you look at something like the deficit. president obama has been talking for months, and he tried to do it in this debate about the fact that, wait a minute, i walked into the oval office and the economy was just in a terrible state, particularly the fact that the federal government was in the hole, big-time. and the fact that mitt romney can walk away with a plus 16%,

yes, it was an overnight poll, but it's those initial reactions that matter most and really stick with people. and that, i think, maybe is the most telling into how poorly, even democrats think that president obama did. >> and what everybody's talking about the morning after, right? that's what we talked about going into the debates. it's that conversation that happens the morning after that really sticks with people. >> oh, absolutely. there's no question about it. but the obama campaign is taking heart, because they have two more debates. >> one of the things besides the overall feeling we're talking about this morning, we're trying to talk about the facts, because last night, sometimes the facts got lost in the shuffle, with both candidates. >> you spent some good time fact checking. >> a lot of time. one of the things they talked about is tax cuts. it's dominated the debate and the campaign so far. president obama went on the attack, saying mitt romney is pitching a huge tax cut for the rich. >> governor romney's central economic plan calls for a $5 trillion tax cut, on top of the extension of the bush tax cuts. that's another $1 trillion. and $2 trillion in additional

military spending that the military hasn't asked for. >> so let's lack at the facts here. mitt romney does propose across the board, 20% tax cuts. the nonpartisan tax policy center says that under his plan, taxes on the wealthiest american would be reduced by $5 trillion. but mitt romney says he would offset these cuts by closing some deductions, closing loopholes. this would reduce the net tax cut for the wealthy. so our verdict here is if mitt romney does reduce some of these loopholes, then president obama's claim that romney's giving a $5 trillion tax cut, that would be false. but mitt romney was vague. so the next subject, the deficit. mitt romney claims even with this tax cut, he will not add to the deficit. >> my number one principle is there will be no tax cut that adds to the deficit. i won't put in place a tax cut that adds to the deficit. that's part one. so there's no economist can say, mitt romney's tax plan adds $5 trillion, if i say inwi will no

add to the deficit with my tax plan. my plan is not to put in place any tax cut that will add to the deficit. >> but all we have is his word. mitt romney has not laid out any specifics for how he would pay for these tax cuts. he would reduce some deductions and close loopholes, but hasn't said which ones or how many. so the verdict on mitt romney, incomplete. there were some other issues there. we want to further break down the issue of health care. our senior medical correspondent, elizabeth cohen, joins us from atlanta. elizabeth, governor romney said he didn't raise taxes in massachusetts to pay for romney care. let's listen. >> what were some differences? we didn't raise taxes. you've raised them by $1 trillion under obama care. >> true? >> all right. well, here's what's really important to know, john, about the health care reform in massachusetts. it was done with hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money. some of it in a special pot, just to do this kind of health care reform. so this is according to a

"washington post" and other fact checkers. they say, look, even if he didn't raise taxes, he had a ton of federal money to help him out, and they also point out that after romney left office, taxes were raised in massachusetts, to help with this health care reform. >> all right. next up, mitt romney says that under obama care, some kind of supernatural government board will decide what kind of treatments you ought to have. listen. >> he has as a model for doing that a board of people, at the government, an unelected board, an appointed board, who are going to decide what kind of treatments you ought to have. a and, true? >> john, i don't know about supernatural, but it is call the independent payment advisory board. and what this board does is it makes recommendations for certain changes. for example, it might say, you know what, we think we ought to pay hospitals less to do x, y, z procedures under medicare. so all of this is about medicare and it's about recommendations. this board does not go into mrs.

smith's hospital room and says, oh, mrs. smith, we know you think you need a new hip, but we don't think you need it. that's not what they do. they don't make those patient-by-patient recommendations. the concern, john, is when this board recommends reducing payments for certain things, that hospitals are going to then change their benefits, because they're not making as much money. so that's the concern there. >> interesting. now, one of the most contentious points last night was this. mitt romney said his plan includes some of the more popular parts of obama care. let's listen to what he said. >> number one, pre-existing conditions are covered under my plan. number two, young people are able to stay on their family plan. >> so pre-existing conditions. please explain this for me. >> yes, i know it's less than half a sentence when you just said it, but it's way more complicated. so obama care tells insurance companies, you have to insure everybody, even if they have a pre-existing condition. romney has said and his

spoexpeopspoe spokespeople are said, we want insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions if -- and this is a huge if -- if they have had continuous care in the past. but they haven't defined what they mean by that. so let's say you get laid off of your job and you don't have insurance for a period of time, because you don't have a job and you can't afford to buy it on your own. well, that's a gap. so does that mean that you won't be able to get insurance if you have a pre-existing condition? we don't know. under obama care, it's a sure thing. under romney, there are some question marks there. >> and also crucial, mitt romney did not say how he would pay for this pre-existing coverage for people. some of the specifics he did not lay out last night. elizabeth cohen, thanks very much. some really interesting answers to the questions on health care. good to see you this morning. >> thanks. and 11 minutes after the hour. in case you missed any of the debate, you can see it on core presentation, at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. there is a really big story going on elsewhere. the syrian civil war spilling over the border this morning. turkey and syria trading

artillery fire. a dangerous situation. we will go live to the region for more on this foreign battle, coming up. ♪ ♪ ♪ we're lucky, it's not every day you find a companion as loyal as a subaru.

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have more fiber than other leading brands. they're the better way to enjoy your fiber. a dangerous situation overseas. violence escalating this morning between syria and turkey. turkish troops retaliating overnight after five civilians in a turkish border town were killed yesterday by syrian ar till rry fire. now turkey is asking the united nations to intervene, saying it has no swres interest in a war syria. ivan watson joins us live. what is the latest in the conflict between these two countries? >> reporter: good morning, john.

turkey still reeling from the death of five of its civilians in this border town. take a look at one of the newspapers showing the immediate aftermath of those syrian mortar shells that killed a mother, three of her children, and a female neighbor. in that town this morning, there was a funeral and scenes of grief as people carried the civilians' coffins through the streets. we've talked to some of the residents there, and they tell us they were kept up all night, john, from turkish artillery firing out from the immediate surroundings across the border into syria. turkish government officials telling us that those artillery barges continued throughout the night and the pre-dawn hours as well. we haven't seen this kind of shooting across the board in the year and a half-long crisis that's taken place in syria. now the turkish parliament is currently in a closed door emergency session. they're basically debating and set to vote on a resolution, set

forward by the turkish prime minister, that would authorize the use of force, presumably in syria. though it is somewhat vaguely worded. take a look at translation of one sentence of it. it says, quote, it is urged that under article 92 of the constitution, for the duration of one year, the administration be given the right to send and task the turkish armed forces to foreign countries with the administration determining the where, the scope, the numbers, and the time of such deployment. and given the majority of seats that the ruling party here has in the parliament, it's likely that this will be passed. and as you can see from the wording there, it would basically authorize the turkish military to kind of do whatever they want in syria in the days and weeks ahead. >> ivan, turkey is a serious strong regional military power. it would seem strategically unwise for any country, least of

all syria, to try to draw them into any kind of conflict, which is why some suggest maybe it was the rebels staging some kind of false attack to pull turkey in. but is there any evidence of that? >> reporter: well, the turkish government has squarely placed the blame on syrian government forces. and they have some evidence to back that up, john. because this border town had been hit by syrian government artillery, the turkish government says, last week. they actually filed a formal complaint at the united nations about that. even though there were no -- there were no casualties as a result of that ncident. it's also important to note, it's not the first time syrian forces have fired into turkey. it happened at another border point, with a police officer from turkey, hit in a refugee camp by gunfire coming from syria. if the turks don't respond, the government is going to look quite weak in the eyes of many

turks, particularly in the border region. turks who are very worried about their own safety right now after five turkish citizens were killed. john? >> intense, volatile, dangerous border. thank you, ivan watson, for monitoring it for us this morning. thanks, ivan. it is 18 minutes past the hour. the meningitis outbreak first reported in tennessee has now spread to five states. take a look at the map there. it actually killed four people as well. dozens of people now infected with the rare, noncontagious n fungal version. all had received injections to their spine. miguel cabrera pulling off a rare feat. >> doesn't he seem calm about it? i would have been jumping up and down. >> they got to the playoffs. he finished the season batting .330 along with 34 home runs and 139 rbis. the last player to win the triple crown was -- >> boston's karl ustressky in

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we are minding your business this morning. u.s. stock futures are up, indicating markets will open higher today. >> alison kosik is in for christine romans today. and alison, you know the economy was a big part of last night's debate. where exactly do things stand right now? >> certainly americans don't need me telling them, but i'll tell them anyway. weapon don't have to fact check these numbers. americans can all relate to this. 12.5 million people are unemployed. 8.1%, that's where the unemployment rate is, and we'll get another indication of how the jobs picture is doing tomorrow when the big government jobs report comes out. 110,000 jobs are expected to have been added to the economy in september. you know what, that's not great. it shows that the jobs market is just kind of treading water at this point. we're not even adding enough jobs to keep up with population

growth at this point. it's bad out there. >> so what are some of the key economic indicators that are telling us exactly where the economy is headed? >> and that's a good question, because this is certainly not an economy that's operating on all cylind cylinders. look at the housing market, the consumer confidence, those numbers are improving, but the jobs market, it feels like it's really going nowhere. this morning we're going to get another indication of what's happening when we get first-time weekly jobless claims numbers. the expectation is we'll see a jump which means layoffs are continuing. we'll also be getting new retail sales forecasts for the holidays, which shows people may not be spending as much this year as they have over the past two years. the national retail federation expects retail sales to rise 4.1%. sounds good, but then there's the reality here that that's slower sales growth than we've seen in the past two years. you know, consumers just aren't so quick to spend. because there's a lot of uncertainty in the economy and washington, who's going to be in the white house next year. what's going to happen to taxes next year. that's all going to be holding

people spending plans back. so a weak job market, a high unemployment rate, expect that to also hurt retail sales, so lots of research firms are sort of downgrading their forecasts as far as holiday shopping sales go. >> alison kosik, thank you so much. nice to see you this morning. >> same here. all right, the reviews are in. after the first presidential debate, everyone is asking, who won? we have some real-life answers for you. a brand-new cnn poll taken right after it was over. we have that and more highlights and analysis, coming up. ♪

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get married, have a couple of kids, [ children laughing ] move to the country, and live a long, happy life together where they almost never fight about money. [ dog barks ] because right after they get married, they'll find some retirement people who are paid on salary, not commission. they'll get straightforward guidance and be able to focus on other things, like each other, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. you're entitled as a president to your own airplane and your own house but not your own facts. >> that might have been one of the rehearsed zingers from mitt romney we've been hearing about. meanwhile, the president fought back with a little bit of sarcasm. >> at some point, i think the american people have to ask themselves, is the reason that governor romney is keeping all these plans to replace secret

because they're too good? >> this morning, a brand-new cnn poll tells us who came out on top. >> welcome back to "early start," everyone. i'm john berman. >> and i'm zoraida sambolin. 31 minutes past the hour here. after countless attacks on the trail, president obama and republican challenger mitt romney finally met face to face. and? you look at cnn's polling, viewers thought the winner was crystal clear. >> 67% of debate watchers surveyed thought romney won, hands down. so i want to bring in richard so socrat socrates, and our own dana bash is here. richard, you said on twitter last night, no offense, whatsoever. here are the areas the president did not attack on last night. we have them for everybody. no mention of 47%. no mention of bain capital. did not respond to a claim that

he is gutting $716 billion from medicare. romney's taxes, romney's immigration policies. so take a listen to romney, repeatedly bringing up $716 billion claim to no pushback. >> i can't understand how you can cut medicare $716 billion. second reason, he cuts $716 billion from medicare to pay for it. if the president were to be re-elected, you're going to see a $716 billion cut to medicare. >> why no pushback? >> right, that was one of the most astounding things about last night. i mean, we know that those assertions by governor romney are not true. we've all talked about it. we've talked about it here, and we know those assertions are factually inaccurate. so why didn't the president go after him? it's hard to know. the president lacked very tentative and ill prepared. but i'll tell you what we're going to see starting today.

you'll see what governor romney said last night, contrasting with what he said on the campaign trail all night long. a very different, almost progressive mitt romney showed up last night. he was for immigration, he was not going to cut the taxes shared by rich people. it was a totally different person and i think it threw president obama off his stride. but we will not see the same president obama in the next two debates. >> ana navarro down in florida, i want to bring you in. because mitt romney seemed to be very much on his game last night. i want to play one sound bite where he really laid out the issues in this economy in a very clear way. >> i just don't know how the president could have come into office, facing 23 million people out of work, rising unemployment, an economic crisis at the kitchen table, and spend his energy and passion for two years fighting for obama care instead of fighting for jobs for the american people. it has killed jobs.

and the best course for health care is to do what we did in my state. craft a plan at the state level that fits the needs of the state, and then let's focus on getting the costs down for people. >> ana, over time, you have been no giant fan of mitt romney's campaign style. yet you seemed to see a different mitt romney last night. >> oh, i absolutely do. and i hope this is the mitt romney that continues showing up between now and november 6th. the mitt romney that showed up last night, john, was alive and kicking. whereas, you know, president obama was rip van winkel. wake me up when this is over. he just didn't seem happy to be there. and i think one of the things that also played real well was the expectations game. even though both campaigns had tried to lower the expectations, the truth is, most american people and most voters watching this were waiting for obama to slaughter romney. were waiting for obama to perform much better than romney.

and thus, it really worked well when it came the other way around. the silver lining for democrats is that i think now the expectation games is topsy-turvy. and people are, you know, i think that if president obama just shows up awake in the next deba debate, you know, it might be enough for him to do better than this last debate. a little cuban coffee may do him some good. >> i listened to a lot of democrats overnight and got some messages for this morning, and democrats do think they have some kind of opening going forward on the issue of specifics. president obama started to make the claims last night that mitt romney has no specifics in his plan. let's listen to what he said. >> he says he's going to close deductions and loopholes for his tax plan. that's how it's going to be paid for, but we don't know the details. he says that he's going to replace dodd/frank, wall street

reform, but we don't know exactly which ones. he won't tell us. he now tells us he's going to replace obama care and assures all the good things that are in it are going to be in there and you don't have to worry. and at some point, i think the american people have to ask themselves, is the reason that governor romney is keeping all these plans to replace secret because they're too good? >> now, he probably could have said that more succinctly, but you do get the sense we're going to hear that again in the coming days, dana. >> you definitely do. but the opening question is, let's take the first part of what he said, talking about the fact that mitt romney has not been specific on what kind of tax reform he's going to put into his plan in order to get that deficit down or keep the deficit neutral. why didn't he do that during the umpteen exchanges that he had on the issue of tax cuts? you know, i'm sure people like you, richard, were sitting there saying, come on, come on, come on, get in there. >> we were. >> because there were so many obvious openings for him to do that. it didn't take, i think, a

skilled debater, like president obama is, in order to get in on there -- >> i think it's exactly like you said at the top of the hour, i think he was rusty and he was not prepared. but this will not happen again. >> so i want to end on a really interesting moment heres. it was that pbs moment, getting at of buzz on big bird. let's listen and then you can all chime in. >> i will eliminate all programs byes th by this test if they don't pass it. is the program so critical that it's worth borrowing money from china to pay for it? if not, i'll get rid of it. obama care's on my list. i apologize, mr. president, i use that term with all respect. >> i like it. >> okay, good. i'll get rid of that. i'm sorry, jim, i'm going to stop the subsidy to pbs, i like pbs, i love big bird, i actually like you too. but i'm not going to keep on spending money to borrow money from china to pay for it. >> the question is, was this a low point for romney? listen to this, "the washington post" said, it was the closest romney came from matching his

reputation as an unsentimental bottom line-driven executive. what do you think, ana? >> i think if that was the low point for romney, we're in pretty good shape. it was, okay, a little awkward. we know he loves grits, loves the height of the trees in michigan, and he loves big bird. okay, i think a lot of americans do too. i'm okay with that as the low point. >> we do have a spouound bite f a pbs executive explaining exactly how big bird is funded. i hope we can listen to that. >> the sesame workshop receives very, very little funding from pbs, so we are able to raise our funding through philanthropic, through our licensed product, which goes back into the educational programming, through corporate underwriting and sponsorship. so quite frankly, you know, you can debate whether or not there should be funding of public broadca broadcasting, but when they always tout out big bird and say we're going to kill big bird, that is misleading, because

"sesame street" will be here. >> big bird lives on. >> yes. >> can we close by all agreeing that it is a good thing big bird will survive. >> my 15-month-old who does not know what big bird is yet, will be very happy once he knows. >> on that we agree, right, ana? >> absolutely. save big bird campaign is on. it started at "early start." >> ana navarro down in florida -- >> i'm in washington, john! >> you know, wherever you are, we love having you. >> she's normally down in florida. >> great to see you, no matter where you are. next up on the october debate schedule, the battle of the number twos. vice president biden and congressman paul ryan facing off october the 11 president in their one and only debate. that is in danville, kentucky. on october 16th, the president and his gop rival square off for a second time in hempstead, long island. their third and final encounter scheduled for october 22nd in boca raton, florida. we have a serious story going on in the american south right now. a deadly outbreak of.

meningitis spreading this morning. five states now reporting cases. and coming up, what all the infected patients have in common and what doctors are doing about it. i'm barack obama, and i approve this message. these appliances could have been made here in america. but a company called global tech maximized profits by paying its workers next to nothing... under sweatshop conditions in china. when mitt romney led bain, they saw global tech as a good investment... even knowing that the firm promoted its practice of exploiting... low-wage labor to its investors. mitt romney - tough on china? since when?

after you jumped buship in bangkok,n. i thought i'd lost you. surfing is my life now. but who's going to .... tell the world that priceline has even faster, easier ways to save you money. . . on hotels, flights & cars? you still have it. i'll always have it. so this is it?

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the meningitis first found in tennessee is in four states killing five people. >> dozens of people are affected and more cases are expected. all of those infected have received steroid injections to their spines. and it's believe the steroid was contaminated with a fungus. elizabeth cohen joins us with the latest. this is very scary. we just said it's not

contagious, but how are people getting this? >> what seems to have happened, people with back pain went in to get injections of steroids into their spine, which is a very common procedure, and then they came down with meningitis, which is an inflammation of the covering of the brain and the spinal cord. it is very difficult to treat andi inright now the new englan compounding center is recalling three lots of this steroid. and there's an investigation as to how a fungus may have gotten into this drug. >> and we understand that these fungal infections are really hard to retreat. they require really strong drugs, the recovery is tough, it's long. what's the prognosis for these people? >> there's no really good numbers on the mortality rate, but what i do want to say is, just like you said, very hard to treat. this is very rare. and is often seen in africa and in other countries. it's treated with very toxic drugs, takes a long time, iv, and drugs that are taken by mouth. this is a very tough disease. >> all right.

elizabeth cohen, live for us in atlanta. this is very, very scary. lots of folks worried about it. thank you so much for those details. >> 44 minutes after the hour. let's talk about something a little more cheery. the rock 'n' roll hall of fame has announced their nominees for the class of 2013. rap pioneer's public enemy and nwa both received nominations in their first year of eligibility. >> so fans of canadian rockers rush, they're going to be happy. they have been eligible since 1998, but this is the first time that that band has actually been nominated. disco queen donna summer is nominated for the fifth time. she passed away earlier this year from lung cancer. >> boston's own. we're all rooting for her. the list of acts nominated for the rock 'n' roll hall of fame also includes deep purple, heart, and the motown group, the

marvelettes. >> informer thougnever thought conversation about nwa. >> what's our starting point? in about 15 minutes, we'll be talking, of course, about what happened last night. >> but that's not what i believe. >> that's just not the facts. >> it was republican mitt romney who dominated the first presidential debate, puts his campaign back on track, according to many watchers. the question, of course, is the big picture. did he do enough that would change the trajectory of the race for him? we'll talk about that this morning. full debate, analysis ahead this morning on "starting point." our guests are republican senator john mccain of arizona, rand paul from kentucky. from team obama, maryland governor martin o'malley will join us, and jen ps karks i. and austan goolsbee, an adviser to president obama, he'll be joining us as well to do a little fact checking on the economy. that in about 14 minutes. see you then.

an incredibly rare feat on the diamond, it's been 45 years in the making. another slugger captures the triple crown. we have a live report, coming up. ♪ [ male announcer ] from our nation's networks... ♪ ...to our city streets... ♪ ...to skies around the world... ♪ ...northrop grumman's security solutions are invisibly at work, protecting people's lives... [ soldier ] move out! [ male announcer ] ...without their even knowing it. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman.

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yep, look at this. it takes like 20 pictures at a time. i never miss anything. isn't that awesome? uh that's really cool. you should upload these. i know, right? that is really amazing. the pictures are so clear. kevin's a handsome devil that phone does everything! search dog tricks. okay, see if we can teach him something cool. look at how lazy kevin is. kevin, get it together dude cmon, kevin take 20 pictures with burst shot on the galaxy s3.

welcome back. it was quite a night for major league baseball. the game has its first triple crown winner in 45 years. detroit's miguel cabrera finishing up the season number one in the american league, in

batting average, homers, and rbis. >> and talking about going down to the wire, the yankees and as clinched their respective divisions on the very last day of the regular season. we have a very special sports segment this morning. we're joined by rowland martin to break it all down. >> all of us are regular sports fans. i'm not a sports guy, but -- >> but you're a fan. >> who do you like, the oakland as are white hot? >> they are white hot. i'm a native of texas, i won't bring in my astros. but i don't go for the white hot, because once you get into the playoffs, at the end of the day, you had that one series, you don't have a good two or three games, you're out of the playoffs. you're out of the playoffs. and i won't necessarily go with the oakland as yet. >> so this is the first year that they've changed the format, adding two more wild card spots. >> yes. >> smart move. >> so shake things up. >> absolutely. smart move. i think having more people in, gets more fans involved. you have more energy, you have

more excitement. so i do love that. baseball has always been stuck in this, you know, these are our tradition, these are our rules. i think this will be helpful for baseball. and the more people who are talking about baseball and not the nfl is always good news for baseball. because baseball's problem, still to me is they are not as dominant for the fan as you see with baseball and football, because they don't have players who are strong marketing folks. >> and they're trying to do that. they have a player now who has just accomplished something remarkable, the triple crown, first since 1967. but does miguel cabrera, even though he won the triple crown, deserve to be the most valuable player. because a lot of the new baseball fans think that mike trout of the anaheim angels deserves it more. because mike trout is more valuable to his team adds more wins to his team. so who is more valuable, miguel

cabrera or mike trout? >> i think cabrera will look at it and here's why. because baseball, you look at the major stats. what's going to happen historically when they say, huh in the world did the guy who won the triple crown not win the mvp? so you're having an inside baseball geekish -- oh, no, but if you look at on-base percentage and fielding -- i'm sorry. the average fan, you pass up the guy who wins the triple crown, from a marketing standpoint, you're nuts. >> you just called may geek, but that's okay. and i think that ted williams once won the triple crown without winning the mvp. >> and red sox fans are still to this day a little bit upset. >> i sure am! >> hello. >> i'm loving the cabrera story, but i'm going to move on to football. i'm not normally a football fan, but this was an interesting story. >> you're not? >> no, i'm not. it looks like the suspended coach, sean payton, will be attending what could be an historic game. but what i was surprised about is that he would not be able to attend a football game, even if

he paid for a ticket. is that true? >> bottom line is when you get suspended by the commissioner, sorry, you cannot -- >> you cannot walk in the building? >> baby, you cannot do it. he can barely walk by the practice facility. roger goodell makes it clear, you have no contact. when they had the hall of fame game, they had to make some revisions, because one of his players, willie rope, got into the hall of fame. so he got to attend that ceremony. and that was the first time he could talk even to his players. >> reminder, sean payton was suspended for the year because of the bounty scandal that happened in the new orleans saints. he's being allowed to go to this game because drew brees is about to break a record held by johnny united since the 1400s. >> you are a geek. >> see how deep he was with the baseball stats. football, 1400s, big deal. >> one last, tom brady. >> you have lost your mind! >> thanks for being here and

agreeing that tom brady -- >> oh, john berman! next, the best advice from representative terry seawall. ♪ [ man ] excuse me miss. [ gasps ] this fiber one 90 calorie brownie has all the moist, chewy, deliciousness you desire. mmmm. thanks. [ man ] at 90 calories, the brownie of your dreams is now deliciously real. [ female announcer ] and now, try our new chocolate chip cookie 90 calorie brownie.

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as a member of congress, it's really important, i think, every day, to continue to work hard on behalf of my constituents. and the best thing i can do is be authentically me. >> got to be me. >> and i would say you are heeding her advice today. you are being authentic. >> no one else would have me. that is all for "early start" this morning. i'm john berman. >> and i'm zoraida sambolin. "starting point" with soledad o'brien starts right now. >> our starting point, game on. mitt romney and president obama go toe to toe in the first presidential debate. the verdict is in. >> the average person making 3 million bucks is getting a $250,000 tax break. >> virtually everything he said about my tax plan is accurate. >> obama stumble s -- >> the last point i would make -- >> your time is up. >> i had five seconds before you interrupted me. >> mr. president, you're